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Because people participated and campaigned. Except for Fate and Mio's wins, ISML postseasons are largely different from regular season.

Eucliwood and Kanade aren't really all that different in the playoffs than the regular season. Stella's failures are more from their characters not being different enough. Kanade looked like the strongest in the regular season and (assuming she doesn't choke to Eucliwood who is Nova anyways) she still looks like the strongest now. Eucliwood looks about as strong or stronger than anyone in Stella in the regular season and she goes on to beat all of them in the post season. I expected Mikoto to bring her usual super strength in the playoffs, and she did a few times, but not against Eucliwood and lost. Kuroneko looked a lot better but it doesn't really matter if it's Azusa or Yuki or Kuroneko when they go up against Kanade.

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A miracle that you believe in when you know it won't happen......... is hope.

That's exactly why you had Mikoto filled in as a sure tiara winner this year. And it's not all about the Top 2. Top 16 overall shuffled massively. Behind the scenes, the staff sees why, because the demographics changed quite significantly. Like last year, Japan and USA flooded the postseason.

Often in real life, I'll ask someone "Do you watch pro hockey?" (as my other main entertainment interest other than anime is pro hockey).

A common answer: "Not in the regular season, but I usually tune in for the playoffs".

I wonder if some American and Japanese SaiMoe fans (of a more "casual" persuasion) are much the same. They're not interested in following SaiMoe for three quarters or more of the calender year, but they will show up for the annual playoffs "where it matters".

Perhaps this "the playoffs are the only place where it matters" mentality is more common among Americans and Japanese voters than amongst most other nationalities, so they flood ISML to unusual degrees in the post-season. And that can have a major impact on who wins, of course.

For Japan, it's very understandable because the postseason, without consolation, is exactly AST format. And yeah I agree with you that the Americans also feel this way--many only tune in for playoffs. It's just very interesting how dedicated (right word?) the Chinese/SE Asia/Latin America fans are by showing up in huge numbers in regular season.

Also an interesting fact that you probably know is \we have way more voters in the necklace rounds than the normal rounds, even though the necklace rounds do not affect the contestants' seeding/eligibility for the postseason.

For Japan, it's very understandable because the postseason, without consolation, is exactly AST format. And yeah I agree with you that the Americans also feel this way--many only tune in for playoffs. It's just very interesting how dedicated (right word?) the Chinese/SE Asia/Latin America fans are by showing up in huge numbers in regular season.

Also an interesting fact that you probably know is \we have way more voters in the necklace rounds than the normal rounds, even though the necklace rounds do not affect the contestants' seeding/eligibility for the postseason.

If people feel that a specific award is up for grabs, they're more likely to care and hence vote (necklace victories are seen as nice feathers in your favorite moe girl's cap, even if she doesn't win the Tiara).

This is partly why I pitched the "Nova Rookie of the Year" award concept to you. Perhaps it could generate more interest.

That's exactly why you had Mikoto filled in as a sure tiara winner this year. And it's not all about the Top 2. Top 16 overall shuffled massively. Behind the scenes, the staff sees why, because the demographics changed quite significantly. Like last year, Japan and USA flooded the postseason.

Yes, I expected Mikoto to win because I expected her to perform better in the playoffs than in the regular season. Instead, she did almost exactly like my regular season stats predicted she would do. That falls in line with what I said about Eucliwood and Kanade not being that different in the playoffs. I guess there's still the results for the last match to look at so I'll wait to take a look at those to see if they change my opinion on anything.

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A miracle that you believe in when you know it won't happen......... is hope.

And why would you expect a repeat winner to perform better in postseason? You were predicting 58% for Mikoto over Eucliwood, That's a 24% swing that cannot be explained other than regular season results were way off. Please do look forward to the final match results. Of course, Kuroneko, Shana, and Kobato shuffled as well, and everyone except Kanade/Eucliwood actually.

Often in real life, I'll ask someone "Do you watch pro hockey?" (as my other main entertainment interest other than anime is pro hockey).

A common answer: "Not in the regular season, but I usually tune in for the playoffs".

I wonder if some American and Japanese SaiMoe fans (of a more "casual" persuasion) are much the same. They're not interested in following SaiMoe for three quarters or more of the calender year, but they will show up for the annual playoffs "where it matters".

Perhaps this "the playoffs are the only place where it matters" mentality is more common among Americans and Japanese voters than amongst most other nationalities, so they flood ISML to unusual degrees in the post-season. And that can have a major impact on who wins, of course.

Part of it is liekly because of their experience with J Saimoe. Saimoe thrives on late rush to pull off come from behind wins, and most of J Saimoe followers( note that many follow J Saimoe even though they can't vote in it ), many of whom living in English or Korean Speaking regions as well, seems to try to do the same in ISML.

I would like to stress that I still believe the safe thing to do in ISML, unlike other saimoe-type tournaments, is to put your best effort in as early as possible. Poor start in regular season is a death sentence, no matter who you are. Most of ISML winners usually started the regular season with steady streaks of wins, often being the last one to suffer a loss. They may ease off in the mid to late regular season when they are cruising to playoff spot, only to come back strong in the playoff, but rarely did any playoff entrant started off badly. Late surge may be key ingredient to winning in Playoff, but you won't get to Playoff if you don't start off with your best stuff. Competitions in regular season is equivalent or better than final 32 in most other saimoe-type events, and even in those, you will have trouble winning if you ease off at that late stage.

So why has Kanade's buttmad produced results, while Shana's years and years of buttmad ended up poofing every year?

As I was saying in ISML Forum, in the early years, Shana often escaped defeat by skin of her teeth. She has the greatest number of cumulative wins in all the saimoe tournament, thus her number of enemies far outnumber everyone else. In addition, those 1 vote victories by her really made lasting impressions. Kanade rarely let anyone get in close enough for a chance to win, and when someone did, Kanade had her share of heartbreak loss. Shana had air of bully that somehow kept finding ways to torment you while Kanade, despite all her dominant wins, managed to portray herself as victim of opposing faction's manipulations due to key close losses.

Therefore, I think there was difference in how people viewed these 2 characters this year. Shana could not overcome the impression of "The one who beat my **** by 1 vote", while Kanade faction managed to spread the perception that Kanade is "victim who suffered heartbreaking loss to a bad bully". How well these perceptions have solid basis on facts would be subject of interesting debate, but these perceptions existed, and it helped contribute to Shana's downfall and Kanade's ascendency.

Vote sniping..... well even in ISML, there are bound to be vote sniping. Railgun just happened to take advantage last year. Whether it was last year or this year, Kanade was going to get her tiara. She just happened to have a much more convicing win against Euu. Good win for Kanade.

- Yuri wins again. Didn't expect Yui-nyan to win against Shana, but she did. Nice!
- Also didn't expect Mio to win against Mikoto. Not exactly the best result but OK.
- Ruri winning against Taiga however is an excellent result.
- Ririchiyo and KuroYukiHime winning were very good results as well.